The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is working on a high-tech ocean exploration vessel known as the Okeanos Explorer that will map the ocean floor in high resolution and instantly send its data and discoveries back to shore via high-speed satellite broadband. The new vessel that will officially launch in mid-2010 will be equipped with remote-controlled cameras, and high resolution sonar to explore the ocean depths at an unprecedented scale. The ship is part of a five-year program to try and map the seafloor, widely considered a last frontier with roughly 95% of the ocean depths still to be explored.
Read more about this vessel here.
